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Enrichment studies for wild carnivores (e.g., in zoos) are often short-term, use enrichments of unknown motivational significance, and focus on glucocorticoids and stereotypic behaviour (SB), ignoring other stress-relevant variables. Our study assessed the broad behavioural and physiological effects of enriching American mink-a model carnivore-with preferred stimuli long-term, and investigated the welfare implications of individual differences in SB. We raised 64 male-female pairs with or without enrichment. At 7 months, pairs were split and mink individually housed (adults being solitary), first by being temporarily moved to identical non-enriched cages (permitting observation blind to rearing condition). Two weeks later, one mink per original pair (half female, half male) was returned to his/her rearing cage for re-observation, sample collection for faecal cortisol metabolite (FCM) analysis, and additional research for 1.5 years before being humanely killed. Stress-sensitive variables were then measured post-mortem. Enriched-raised mink in their rearing conditions excreted less FCM ( F1,29=8.33, p=0.003), and performed less SB than non-enriched mink. Two SB sub-types occurred: (1) 'loco' stereotypies: locomotor, whole body and head stereotypies (e.g., pacing, nodding), previously shown to correlate with recurrent perseveration; and (2) repetitive scrabbling with the forepaws. Enriched housing reduced both (at 7 months: loco stereotypies: F1,60=25.3, p

Publication Title

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

Volume

177

Pages

59-69

ISBN/ISSN

0168-1591

DOI

10.1016/j.applanim.2015.12.002

Language

English

Author Address

Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.gmason@uoguelph.ca